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Live Wisely, Pleasing God
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Eph. 5:1-20
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Transcript
Opening: Joy and Effort in Worship
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Don't she just love our choir? Man, I'll tell you what. If you love coming to worship here on Sundays, can I get a round of applause?
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um To God be the glory. Friends, it takes the audio-visual guys. It takes the people who open the church in the morning to turn on the lights to get the AC going, to fill up the baptistry to get the coffee brewing,
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There's a lot of people involved in the worship that you get to come and enjoy every Sunday morning.
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I just put a note to myself this morning as I of ah often do Sunday mornings before I even come to the church.
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I think to myself in preparation for the sermon, is there one message, one word, something that is on my heart? And friends, it's simply this word of grateful. I'm so grateful.
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I'm so grateful for each one of you that comes and serves. I'm grateful that we have the ability to come here on Sunday to worship. It just makes my heart overflow.
Lifestyle of Worship Beyond Sundays
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But did you know that worship here on Sunday is just a very small portion of what we're called to do? right This one hour or two if you're so inclined to be here for Bible study. Maybe even three if you stay for lunch.
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is a very small portion of what we're called to worship. It doesn't just start or end here on Sunday. Matter of fact, it's a continual lifestyle of worship that we're called.
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If you are indeed brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are indeed somebody who follows if you are indeed somebody who's been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone,
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Your life should be one of worship, not just here on Sundays.
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It's a lifestyle that's motivated by the love of a God and the love we have for one another. And friends, it extends well beyond these walls. So if you feel like, I just can't wait to come to church on Sundays to worship, let me thank you for that.
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But let me caution you for that. Because your lifestyle the rest of the week matters. People notice your worship, the way you live.
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and the Bible tells us, we'll see from Ephesians chapter 5 today, that there's a certain way in which we live that, get this, pleases God. Can you imagine that?
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That there's something that you can do simply by the way you live your life that pleases God Almighty.
Living Wisely According to Ephesians
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Brothers and sisters, this is what we're looking at today, Ephesians chapter 5. I invite you to open up your Bibles with me. Ephesians chapter 5 is, you'll notice at the top of your outline, your handout that you've got in your bulletin, says live wisely, pleasing God.
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So there's this element of wisdom. We're going to see this element of wise discernment. We're going to see a certain way to live, a certain way not to live, and one way pleases God.
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You'll remember if you were here last week, we talked about in the end of chapter four two lifestyles we said one lifestyle of the unbeliever and one lifestyle of the believer the unbeliever was the old person the new believer or the new person is the believer the old person we said didn't know God they were godless they were darkened in their mind they couldn't understand the things of God but the believer we said through their words, their actions, and their deeds, were called to reflect this new relationship that they had in Christ.
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And the homework I gave you last week was, reach out to somebody with some encouragement. How many of y'all did that? Yeah.
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I know, I received a couple of encouraging texts and emails, so I appreciate that. ah One of them said, love... The bangles, can we incorporate more sermons that have the bangles in them?
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I'll try to accommodate. The Apostle Paul, we'll see this week, continues this contrast between the believer and the unbeliever, between the walk of the unbeliever and the walk of the believer.
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and i And I want us to pay real close attention as I read today, listening for the contrasts, because they're they're pretty stark. And so I want you to to listen with a a keen ear
Warnings Against Sinful Behaviors
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today.
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Chapter 5, verse 1 to 20 and the following says, from the New Living Translation, Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
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Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity,
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or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people. Obscene stories or foolish talk or coarse jokes, these are not for you.
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Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral or impure or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God.
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For a greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world. Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins. For the anger of God or the wrath of God will fall upon them who disobey.
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Don't participate in these things that people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light.
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For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness.
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Instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their even evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them.
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For the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will give you life. Verse 15, So be careful how you live.
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Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in the evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
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Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts.
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And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Contrast of Believer and Unbeliever Lifestyles
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Christ. Did you hear all the contrast going on there between the two? Between the believer and the unbeliever?
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The unbeliever who unlike the believers, verse 1 the believers are supposed to imitate God. That means the unbelievers cannot imitate God.
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So what does that leave them imitating? Well, you simply need to look at our sign outside the church here this past week and you'll notice by coincidence that the message says you either follow Jesus or following Jesus requires you to unfollow yourself.
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So friends, you're either imitating God or you're imitating Jesus or you're imitating something else. And that something else is yourself. You're either in Christ or you're in self.
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And the lifestyle of the unbeliever, the one who is in themselves, who imitates themselves, who has a love that has bent inward on themselves, we see the result.
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Verse 3 and following says, they leave a lifestyle of sexual immorality and impurity and greed. Filthy, foolish, foul speech, crude jokes.
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It's a lifestyle of darkness. Verse 17 says it's a lifestyle of foolishness. 18 says it's a lifestyle of drunkenness.
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Remember, if you've been any number of my Bible studies, even from the pulpit, when when we get to passages like this that have lists, we have to be very careful.
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Our temptation is to go through the list individually. Go, well, I don't use coarse jokes, so this is not talking about me. Well, i don't I'm not sexually um immoral, so that's not talking about me.
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Friends, the reason we get lists like this in the Bible, lists, by the way, I have to pronunciate, lists, plural. Whether it's a vice list or a virtue list, the author quite frequently wants us to look at them in sum or in total,
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What do all of these represent is the question we need to ask ourselves. And it is a list that represents a misaligned love. See, the person who is is self-loving.
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That's why they're sexually immoral. That's why they're impure. That's where greed comes from. I can't get enough. I'm self-indulgent. I must have more.
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It's a lifestyle, and I put to myself, a picture of the world. You simply need to turn on the TV and look at the lifestyles of the rich and what? Famous.
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And all of us sit there and go, man, what would it be like to live fill in the blank? Big house, big farm, lots of acreage, sports cars.
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You'll notice quite frequently, and this is where this idiom comes from, those people are very empty. They're hollow, they're wanting, they're needing, because they're focused on self.
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They're focused on fulfilling something that only God can fulfill. It's a love that's inwardly bent, not outwardly bent.
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I wrote myself a note This morning, matter of fact, I know because it's in a different color ink. I just put a note to myself, how could it be any different for those people?
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Think about it. They don't know God. They don't know the things of God. Their minds are darkened to the things of God. Friends, all they have left is the world.
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All they have left is stuff. All they have left is themselves. And so that's what they worshiped. And what's the result? Well, verse 5 tells us right here. Look at verse 5.
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of god the unbeliever here. And he's saying, and in effect, they don't know God. That way, there's no way they can know the love of God.
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And because they don't know the love of God, their lifestyle reflects this very truth. It's that they are outside of the inheritance of the kingdom. So I want to be real clear because, quite frankly, this could be misinterpreted.
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I don't know how clear I can make this to tell you the unbeliever is destined for hell. Period. Not a very popular statement from the pulpit. But brothers and sisters, it's the truth.
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They are not inheriting the kingdom of heaven. What's interesting to me as I read this, get to verse 6. Just get beyond a little bit. Verse 5 to verse 6. Verse 6 says, don't be fooled by those who try excuse these sins.
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For the anger of God or the wrath of God will fall upon all those who dis disobey Him. Who is he warning here? Who is Paul warning here? The unbeliever or the believer?
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I want to think about that for second. He's warning the He's warning the believer. He's saying, hey, you that are in Christ, hey, brothers and sisters, watch out.
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Don't be fooled by those people in society who say that sinful life is not sinful. Does that sound familiar to anybody?
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We have whole groups of people, and I could start listing them right now, and I'd be very unpopular with many of them.
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I like to just say sin, the capital S, sin, which encovers all sexually immoral, all greedy, all people who are impure, all people who lie and cheat and steal and gossip.
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have i Have I covered a category for you yet? Because I should. See, what happens, friends, quite often we like to pick and choose the evil people the homosexuals, the transgenders.
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And then we say that's the big S sin because that's what's popular on the news today. Those are the people that we should be watching out for. Blasphemy.
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Blasphemy in their living a life unashamed before God. Friends, they don't know God. They can't please Him living that type of lifestyle.
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So before we're quick to jump on the homosexual bandwagon or the transgender bandwagon, might we jump on the alcoholic bandwagon or the drug user bandwagon or the gossiper bandwagon?
Influence Through Godly Living
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By the way, all those are sins. Let's be real careful. He says don't be fooled by anybody who tells you that's not a sin because the Bible is very clear. This is sin.
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It's not okay to live that way. As a matter of fact, what the that sin, but you have to accept that sin.
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And then the next step is you don't call it sin. But friends, we know better because we have God's Word. God's Word tells us and warns us, be careful of that. Because if we fall in that trap, it says the anger of God, the wrath of God will fall on all.
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The unbeliever and the believer. What does that mean for you and I as believers? Well, first off, it doesn't mean that we can lose our salvation. But it does mean that we can potentially lose benefits, heavenly rewards.
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Imagine if you're in your family and somebody in your family is living a lifestyle of sin, open sin that you know about, and you don't address that sin.
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And you're complicit in that sin. Because that's how the progression goes. You turn a blind eye to that sin. Then you eventually say, you know, maybe that's not really sin. Then it's, might as well just be part of that sin.
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And we end up showing up to same-sex marriages.
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We've got to be real careful, brothers and sisters.
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It's not okay to live that lifestyle. It's not okay to affirm that lifestyle. It's not okay to accept that lifestyle. And if you do, we have to be real careful because you could potentially lose heavenly rewards.
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That's the walk of the unbeliever. Well, let's look at the contrast. What is the walk of the believer? That's our next section here. He tells us verse 1 that we are to imitate God in everything that you do.
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Why? Because you are children of God. I put a note to myself, several of my four kids look like me in some regard. There's some aspect, either their nose or their ears, hopefully not their hair.
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Brothers and sisters, because you're in the family, because you're adopted in the family, you need to imitate the family. You need to imitate God the Father.
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How do we do that? Well, he starts in verse 2. He says you need to start by living a life that's filled with love. What type of love? Well, it's the love Christ has demonstrated for us. He loved us and he offered himself as a sacrifice for us.
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And get this, it was a pleasing aroma to God. Meaning it was something that God witnessed and saw, this sacrificial outward love, and it pleased God.
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It's a picture of sacrificial love that you and I need to have. It's picture of a love that's not inwardly focused but outwardly focused.
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It's a sacrificial love that gives to others and not ourselves. It goes on in verse 8 and says that because we're in Christ, because we're adopted in the family, we have this light of the Lord within us.
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Therefore, we have to let that light shine. That light within you produces only, it says, what's good and right and true. Verse 15 says, then because we have that light because we are to shine it, we need to live wisely.
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Be careful how we live. Don't act like, I like this, fools. Don't act foolish because the world is foolish. Don't act like them, it says.
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Don't live like them. Don't live thoughtlessly. Rather, here's the contrast, live with discernment. Live discerning the will of God for your lives. Understand what the Lord wants you to do.
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And if you do that, brothers sisters, look at the contrast. Instead of accepting somebody's sin and leading them further and further astray, it says that you let that light of the Lord shine upon them and it exposes their sin.
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It doesn't mean your job is to go expose people's sin.
Interacting Wisely with the World
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Let me be real clear about that. Because that's our tendency Well, look at Nancy. Boy, she's just a gossiper. I can't wait. soon as she starts gossiping, I'm going get her.
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that's our That's our response, right? He's saying, by the way, you live your life. Be careful. Discerning what's pleasing to God. And when you do that, other people will see that light.
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And that light will expose their evil deeds.
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What's the result of that? Well, brothers and sisters, what that does is that lets the unbelieving world see you and see that light and go, there's something different with these guys. There's something different with these Christians.
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Wonder what's up with that. And the Holy Spirit starts to open their eyes to the sin which they have in their lives. And it potentially will lead them to repent.
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And it will potentially lead them to come to Christ. Simply by the way you live your life. Isn't that amazing? You have that power in your life that as you walk and you shine that light, that others who are living in the darkness will look at you and go, there's something different.
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There's something attractive about that. Man, I want some of that.
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What Paul doesn't say here, going to be real clear. He doesn't say have nothing to do with unbelievers. but Because that's our tendency. All those people who sin, want nothing to do with those people.
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I have nothing in common with those people. Why would I ever want to go to the jail and preach to the prisoners? They're prisoners. That's not me.
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I've told many of you, I spent 15 years preaching to prisoners. prisoners Many of those men and women were just one or two bad decisions away from you and me. They really were.
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He doesn't say don't have anything to do with unbelievers, but what he does say be careful and be smart and use discernment in your walk. And I use two words that want you to write down in your notes today.
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He says, it's one thing to associate, so you want to write down the word associate, It's one thing to associate with unbelievers. It's one thing to associate with the world. It's another thing to participate in the world.
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On my notes I just put associate not participate. What does that mean for you and I to today? What does that look like? Well practically speaking if you look to verse 18 it says don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life.
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And all the Baptists are keenly listening to what I'm going to say next.
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It's not popular in Baptist circles, but going to say it. This admonition does not say, do not drink wine. Do not have a beer. That's not what's said here. It says, don't go and be, everybody repeat after to me, drunk.
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What is drunk? It is the excess self-indulgence of wine. ah He's pointing back to those who are inwardly focused, who are self-indulgent, who are sexually um immoral.
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It's all about them. It's all on themselves. He's saying, don't be that person who goes out and gets drunk.
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But I want to be real careful here because I want to say that there is a fine line between associating and participating. He's saying, and I think this is why he starts in verse 10, be careful.
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Determine what pleases the Lord. Use wise discernment. Carefully think about, can I go have a glass of wine with my sisters downtown or my brothers at the Cameron Beer Market down here?
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Can I get away with one beer and sit and associate or participate? And have one beer with them in hopes that I can sh the shine the light of Christ on them.
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And I know some of you are shaking your heads right now. Pastors on a slippery slope. I can do that on Baptism Sunday, by the way.
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We want to associate, not participate.
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If you're somebody who can go have a glass of wine with your sisters and potentially draw other people to you without becoming drunk, well, I think that's okay.
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I'm gonna tell you that for the pulpit. If you're somebody, which I had a pastor a friend of mine that was a great friend of mine, his neighbor loved to drink beer. And he told me, this pastor friend of mine, I would love to get in that group of friends that he's in because I know they're all unbelievers.
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But he goes, all they see me is is a pastor at this particular church. He said, I'm going to have a beer with them. And I thought, what? He said, I can do that.
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I can have one beer with them and that may open the door to some conversations that they never would have had before. Friends, it's fine line. But what I want to tell you is, If we use self-indulgence and we get drunk, we'll never be able to win anybody
Gratitude as Worship and Influence
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for Christ.
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The other side of that in verse 18 says, don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin. But here's the other side. Don't be filled with wine but be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit.
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Wisely discern if this is right or wrong. Can I participate? Can I possibly reflect Christ to a world that doesn't know Him? And if that's you, look what it says. If we do that wisely, it brings Him great pleasure.
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If we live in such a way that we are outwardly focused, outwardly loving others, not inwardly focused, that if we reach out to them in sacrificial love, maybe it's not here in these seats.
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Maybe it's right downtown at the Steakstein and Wine Festival that happening in just a few weeks. Maybe it's there that you're out walking around and you're able to shine that light on somebody.
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Hey, those first Baptist people aren't so bad after all. Maybe I'll check out that church.
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How we do life like this? This is what I put to myself this past week. How do we live a life worshipful?
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Not just Sunday, but all week long. How do we live a life that's pleasing to God? Well, I think verse 4 and verse 20 give us this hint. Look at verse 4. End of verse 4.
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Let there be thankfulness to God. That word thankfulness. And then same thing down in verse 20. Give thanks. This is the Greek word eucharista. This is where we get our word eucharist.
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Give thanks. That's what our life should be about. If we want to please God, we want to live a worshipful life, it starts with thanks. Maybe that's an attitude of gratitude for some of you.
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Maybe it's a life that wakes up and says, I realize what Christ has done for me on the cross. Boy, am I thankful.
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Boy, I have the ability to walk up Sunday morning and open the doors and the lights are on and it's cool in here and it's clean in here and the music's playing and the choir's singing. The baptism is full.
Conclusion: Continuous Worship and Gratitude
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Thank God for ah place to worship.
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I just put, every once a while hear a song, every once in a while I'll read a verse, every once a while I'll run into somebody in my past who said, hey, by the way, you did this particular thing for me and it radically changed the path of my life.
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And I think in that moment, thank you, Lord. Thank you for what you did for me on the cross. That has radically changed my life so that I can stand before you here today and say, it's okay to have a beer.
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Maybe that radically changes your life. Oh, I know. I'll get some emails for that.
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Brothers and sisters, if we have an attitude of gratitude, that exudes every part of our life. It infiltrates every part of our life. People see that and they go, wow, there's something different about those folks down there at First Baptist Cameron.
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Not that we walk around cheerful all the time, that's not what I'm talking about, but true gratitude defines everything in what we do. It really defines a lifestyle worship.
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And I put to myself, as you go down to the Steakstein and Wine here in a few weeks, and you run into somebody and they find out that you're from First Baptist Cameron, is there a response, those guys are grateful people.
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Or are they ungrateful people?
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Because they see us both ways. People are watching. Second, I just put thanksgiving to God empowers us to worship. you ever woken up in the morning and just thought it's raining outside?
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Or I got aches and pains? And boy, I just don't feel like getting out of bed today. oh um got to go all the way across the street to the church.
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I got to help with the bulletin today.
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What does that do for our worship?
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Does that empower us? Or do we go, you know if I don't make it on Wednesday, who's going to miss me? If I don't make it on Wednesday, who our early Sunday morning Bible study, oh, that's so man, that's rough.
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Maybe I'll just miss early morning Bible study. You know, I'm just going to come in. I'll be there for worship service at 1045. Oops, I'm running late. It's 11 a.m. You know what? I probably can't make it to church. You know what I'll do? I'll just come to the potluck.
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Do you see the progression? if if we're If we're not living this life of gratitude, that life of gratitude empowers us to worship each week.
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And it's so... Such a slippery slope that we just go, you know what? Not going to come Wednesday. Wednesday turns in into set Sunday morning. Sunday morning turns into Sunday church.
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And then one Sunday turns into two Sundays. Turns into a month and you're away from the church. And then you got people at the church calling you. Are you sick? Are you okay? What's wrong? You don't want those calls.
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Get here to church.
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We love you. We want you here. We need you here to help turn on the lights and turn on the AC and fill up the baptistry so that we can all worship.
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May we be a people who live that type of lifestyle, not just here on Sunday mornings, but all week long. And all God's people said, Amen.